


Safe Within Your Arms

by iceprinceofbelair



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Pride and Prejudice - All Media Types
Genre: Caretaking, Fluff, Gen, Influenza, Pemberley Digital, Pre-Slash, Siblings, Sickfic, sick Darcy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 21:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2084544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy insists upon coming to work when he feels like he might actually pass out, throw up, and break down all at once. GiGi schemes, Lizzie cares, and Darcy cries a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe Within Your Arms

Darcy feels like crap. There's no getting around it. He does.

His head has been swimming since he woke up that morning and his nose is running rather unprofessionally. He groans when he remembers the back-to-back meetings he's expected to attend today and briefly considers rolling over and going back to sleep but, unfortunately, he knows he can't. He has too much responsibility for that sort of behaviour. People look up to him, expect him to set an example.

(But there's a little voice in his head which reminds him that he really doesn't want Lizzie to see him with a chapped, red nose and bleary eyes.)

Armed with hankies and Lemsip by the bucketload, he stumbles into his suit and leaves before he has a chance to change his mind. He's so glad he has to neither commute nor drive but he does spend a fair few minutes convincing his driver that he's fit to work before they eventually leave.

God, his head is killing him.

By the time they arrive, Darcy has managed to make himself at least vaguely presentable. He hopes to meet as few people as possible on the way to his office. Of course, he has no such luck and his PA waylays him on his way to the elevator and gets in with him. Darcy has to fight the urge to sniffle.

"Your meeting with HR overlaps with your meeting with the board," Reynolds informs him grimly. Also, you have a whole stack of voice and e-mails about Domino, the importance of which you already know. Your sister insists upon seeing you. I've told her you're busy but-"

Darcy nods. GiGi is a force of nature. One simply cannot avoid her forever.

"Busy day today," Reynolds goes on and Darcy can feel her eyes boring into him. "But I can cancel everything right now if you need me to."

Darcy's head snaps up to meet her eye and he finds her gazing at him sympathetically. It's exactly the same looks his mother used to give him when he was worried about school and he can only blame the fever for sending his emotions into overdrive when he bursts into tears on her shoulder.

"Oh, Will," she sighs, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight. The skin of her neck feels mercifully cool against his forehead. She tuts. "You're definitely burning up. Hush, now. It's alright."

He can't breathe and Mrs Reynolds is so soft and gentle and understanding that it only swells the lump in his throat.

Darcy has never been so glad to have an office on the top floor - more time to pull himself together.

"I apologise, I-" he begins, moving away and drying his eyes fiercely with the back of his hand but Reynolds cuts him off sharply.

"Don't even think about it," she scolds, adjusting his tie and jacket for him. "You're not well. You shouldn't even be here."

Darcy forces a smile and flushed when he can't stop an instinctive sniffle. "Well, like you said - busy day."

Reynolds clearly wants to discourage him. Given her way, she'd bundle him back into bed and ensure he had everything he could need and then three times that amount, just in case. She's a sweetheart and her care for himself and his sister has been genuine from day one. She'd been the rock they leaned on when they hadn't been able to support each other and Darcy will forever be grateful for everything she's done.

She sighs. "Very well. But don't you dare over-work yourself. I reserve the right to falsify a crisis which will undoubtedly occupy you at home for the rest of the day if I hear even the suggestion of self-neglect. I'll be checking in on you, young man."

Darcy smiles fondly. "Yes, ma'am."

Reynolds rolls her eyes and gives his hand a quick squeeze while the elevator dings to alert them to having reached their destination, thankfully uninterrupted. He has just enough time to splash some cool water on his face before he's being whisked away to his first meeting of the day with a specially prepared cup of extra sugary tea in his hand.

~

As the day wears on, Darcy finds himself beginning to flag. He opts to rest his head on his desk for just a moment between replying to messages and somhow ends up taking an impromptu nap which is how GiGi finds him almost half an hour later.

She bursts into his office without knocking as she always does, forever a ball of excited energy, and bounds up to his desk where he has been startled awake and is rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Her grin fades when she takes in his appearance.

He begins immediately trying to straighten himself out but GiGi grabs his shaking hands as they move to redo the top button of his shirt.

"It's just me, William," she reminds him. "I've seen you in worse states than this."

Darcy stops and allows her to feel his forehead with more gentleness than she'd usually display. "GiGi-"

"You're too busy to go home, I know," she sighs, scanning his body and taking in the shakiness.

She's almost certain it's the early stages of flu. She's known her brother long enough to recognise the difference between a cold and something more serious. He almost never gets a fever when down with a cold nor is he prone to shaking. He also tends to sneeze constantly whereas, the last time he had flu, he was just congested and wheezy. Much like now. She bites her lip.

"But I still think you should."

Darcy frowns at her but the whole room is starting to spin again and he puts his head on his desk again with a murmured apology. He can feel GiGi rubbing gentle circles in his back and it reminds him of the first time she'd ever seen him cry and he feels like breaking down all over again.

GiGi drags an extra chair from the opposite side of his desk and settles beside him, nudging his office chair a little to the right so she can reach the mouse. She runs one hand through his hair and begins reading the first email aloud to him. She also reads out her response as she types it, well versed in the practice of adopting her brother's Very Important CEO persona. He corrects very little and, together, they get through three quarters of the emails before his words start to slur and Gigi practically drags him to the visitor's couch by the window.

"I'll be back in a minute," she says. "If I find you doing anything but lying right here, so help me, I will return your phone calls."

Darcy pales at this and GiGi nods, satisfied, before disappearing.

As much as he insists upon being able to take care of himself, he's thankful to GiGi for helping and for toning herself down today. He really couldn't have dealt with her in all her over-excitement. Exhausted, he shuts his eyes.

When he hears GiGi return, he doesn't open his eyes before he says wearily, "A deal is a deal and if you touch my phone I will almost certainly set Reynolds on you."

"I wasn't planning on it," Lizzie Bennet says in amusement.

Darcy's eyes snap open and he sits up a little too abruptly. Like before, he fumbles with the button on his shirt but Lizzie only chuckles and stops him as GiGi had done.

"Let me," she says quietly and Darcy doesn't think he's shaking from the fever anymore. She's so close. He can feel her breath on his skin, her hair on his cheek, her cool fingertips on his neck as she works.

As she does, she tells him, "I've been enlisted by your sister to convince you to, and I quote, 'get your butt home' though I have a feeling this is at least partly a scheme."

Darcy doesn't say anything. He's too caught up in how soothing her voice is and thinks that he would very much like to have her keep talking until he feels better. She does.

"But I do think she's genuinely concerned about you," she all but whispers, tucking the front his his shirt into his trousers to give the idea of good presentation and helping him slip into his jacket. His entire body trembles with her in such close proximity and he feels like he might start crying again which would be endlessly embarrassing. If there was ever one thing he would change about himself, it would be to have control over his bloody emotions when he's horrendously ill.

Lizzie pulls him to his feet and he automatically leans on her to keep from falling over before he catches himself and stands up unsupported on wobbly legs.

"Lizzie, please, I- I am quite alright," he says pathetically and Lizzie chuckles.

"You're actually running with that angle?" She shakes her head. "Come on. Let's get you home."

Darcy fails to formulate a coherant response and instead mutters, "Mrs Reynolds will be thrilled."

"I believe the pair of them were in it together," Lizzie tells him and Darcy groans. He should have known. "At least they love you," she goes on.

Yes. They do.

But Lizzie doesn't. Darcy isn't naive enough to believe that her helping him to the elevator is any reflection of her feelings for him. She's a good person. She won't see someone in need without coming to their aid. Darcy is no exception but he finds it comforts him, albeit marginally, if he tells himself her actions are influenced by something more.

"GiGi tells me she's organised a car for you," Lizzie says and the words sound unnatural coming from her, like she isn't used to such extravagance. To Darcy, however, it's a fairly common occurrence. When Lizzie speaks again, she's fumbling nervously with her hands and pointedly ignoring how Darcy is clinging desperately to the bannister in the elevator so as not to cause him embarrassment. "Will you be alright on your own?"

Darcy begins to immediately say that, yes, he'll be absolutely fine on his own and she needent worry herself but, aside from knowing it's a blatant lie because he can barely see straight, he also really does want her to come with him. He wants her to stay and speak with her gentle, soothing voice. He just wants someone to take care of him. He doesn't want to be the strong one, running after his sister and holding their family together; not right now. Just for one day, he wants to surrender himself to somebody else and, aside from GiGi, there's nobody he would trust but Lizzie.

Apparently he takes too long formulating an acceptable response because Lizzie invites herself along under the pretence of his being far too ill to be on his own. He's not entirely sure she's wrong.

(Thinking about all the weight he's carrying on his shoulders makes him a little bit emotional again but he holds it in. He always holds it in. Fitz tells him that, one of these days, it's all going to explode out of him. He knows that. He just hopes it'll happen in private when he's fully equipped to deal with it.)

He's given up on trying to present himself as healthy by the time they reach the ground floor - though he's grateful to Lizzie for making his clothes presentable - and he stumbles into the car with a vice-like grip on Lizzie's arm to keep himself upright. She slides in next to him and, fevered and delusional, he rests his head on her shoulder.

She doesn't resist and his heart leaps. In fact, she actually encourages him.

"Sleepy, are we?" She asks in amused tones. "Just relax. You're safe with me."

And Darcy knows that he is.


End file.
